There are many types of process information databases which are used in a variety of manufacturing environments such as pharmaceutical production, automobile manufacture, food and beverage production, pulp and paper processing and manufacture, injection molding of various items, production of electronics, printing processes and items resulting therefrom, etc. These databases include data generated by a manufacturing process which produces a product including one or more of the following products or parts therefor: pharmaceuticals, automobiles, food and beverage, pulp and paper, injection molded items, electronics, and printed items.
As the amount of information that can be collected increases and the amount of information that can stored increases, there is a growing need for systems and methods which evaluate the integrity of the data in such process information databases. One such process includes the manufacture of articles such as absorbent garments. While it is contemplated that the invention may be applicable to numerous manufacturing settings, the invention will be described in the context of the manufacture of articles such as absorbent garments since this context constitutes one embodiment according to the invention.
Articles such as disposable absorbent garments have numerous applications including diapers, training pants, feminine care products, and adult incontinence products. A typical disposable absorbent garment is formed as a composite structure including an absorbent assembly disposed between a liquid permeable bodyside liner and a liquid impermeable outer cover. These components can be combined with other materials and features such as elastic materials and containment structures to form a product which is specifically suited to its intended purposes. A number of such garments include fastening components which are intended to be connected together (e.g., pre-fastened) during manufacture of the garment so that the product is packaged in its fully assembled form.
For example, one such pre-fastened garment includes child's training pants, which have a central absorbent chassis and front and back side panels extending laterally out from the chassis adjacent longitudinally opposite ends thereof. A portion of each of the front and back side panels has a respective fastening component disposed thereon. During manufacture of the training pants, the central absorbent chassis is initially formed generally flat and then folded over so that the front and back side panels face each other. The respective fastening components of the front and back side panels are then aligned and connected together to define an engagement seam. Upon securing the front and back side panel fastening components together, the pre-fastened pair of training pants is in its fully assembled three-dimensional form having an interior space bounded in part by the engagement seam.
For a variety of purposes, including quality control, process control, material control, and so on, it is often desirable to monitor the presence of and/or interrelationships between one or more elements of a disposable absorbent garment. For instance, elements such as outer covers, liners, absorbent pads, side panels, elastic components, fastener components, etc. must be positioned or aligned with respect to each other and/or to other components as desired or otherwise intended in order to produce an acceptable product. Accordingly, inspection systems are commonly used to detect the presence and/or relative positions of such components during manufacturing. If an inspection system determines that one or more components are out of position and thus do not properly register with other components, the inspection system typically outputs one or more signals indicating that certain articles should be culled and discarded, that the process should be adjusted so as to bring out-of-position components into proper position, that the process should be adjusted so that subsequent components are brought into proper registration with one another, and so on.
One such registration inspection system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,525, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. As described therein, registration inspection of a composite product during fabrication is accomplished by producing an image of the article and then analyzing the image to detect the relative positions of one or more components. The detected positions are then compared to desired positions to thereby determine whether one or more components are improperly positioned. Such registration inspection systems employ conventional video cameras for capturing visible, ultraviolet, x-ray, and infrared light reflected by and/or transmitted through components of the product in order to produce still video images of such components. Thus, after producing a video image of a composite article and its several components, the image can be analyzed to determine whether the components are properly positioned and registered with one another.
While data from inspection systems may certainly benefit from a data integrity check, one motivation for this invention stems more from the desire to have accurate information about machine delay, waste, raw material usage, productivity, etc. For example, the invention is applicable to systems and methods such as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/306,794 filed simultaneously herewith on Nov. 27, 2002, entitled COMMUNICATION BETWEEN MACHINES AND FEED-FORWARD CONTROL IN EVENT-BASED PRODUCT MANUFACTURING, incorporated herein by reference.
Another motivation of the invention relates to the desire to have correct data in systems which rely on such data and may provide great weight to data. For example, the invention is applicable to systems and methods such as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/306,881 filed simultaneously herewith on Nov. 27, 2002, entitled INTEGRATING EVENT-EASED PRODUCTION INFORMATION WITH FINANCIAL AND PURCHASING SYSTEMS IN PRODUCT MANUFACTURING, incorporated herein by reference. As another example, the invention is applicable to systems and methods such as disclosed in U.S. patent application ser. No. 10/306,668 filed simultaneously herewith on Nov. 27, 2002, entitled QUALITY MANAGEMENT AND INTELLIGENT MANUFACTURING WITH LABELS AND SMART TAGS IN EVENT-BASED PRODUCT MANUFACTURING, incorporated herein by reterence.
Although highly useful for many applications, the large and varied amounts of data result in data of different qualities, some more accurate than others. Thus, there is a need for a higher order level of control of the quality of records in the process information database.